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Intro and Long-Term Goals I’m Presea, and this is my second 6WC. I am a 25 y/o 5’ 7’’ female, currently weighing 183.6 pounds (4/7/15). My over-arching quest is to lose weight, with an initial goal of 160 pounds, at which point I’ll reassess. For this 6WC, my goal is to lose 5 pounds. I live in the Midwest region of the US, and I have a desk job (actuarial work). I enjoy many types of exercise and feel better when I work at least some activity into every day. Edit: Starting weight morning of 4/13 was 182.5, so my goal for the end of the 6 weeks will be 177.5. Need to take measurements, as I haven't done so since the start of the last challenge (oops). Subquests (SMART goals that will help me complete my overall quest): Subquest #1: Control food intake. Last challenge, my focus was breaking my binge eating cycle, so I had a calorie limit of 2500. Although I went over that a few times, it was never a full-on binge (no secret trips to the grocery store to buy donuts or ice cream to later eat alone in hiding in my car). I believe I succeeded in breaking my binge eating cycle, however, I was not eating at enough of a deficit to actually lose any weight. I track food using MyFitnessPal and activity using a FitBit Zip. Over the course of the entire previous challenge, I ate 98,370 calories and burned 99,495 calories, meaning my total deficit was only around 1,000 calories for the whole 6 weeks. No wonder I hardly lost any weight. This time around, my quest each week will be to have a cumulative deficit of 1,750 calories = a total deficit of 10,500 for the whole challenge. Possible points: +3 CON +4 CON Subquest #1b: I believe protein and fat are keys to satiety. While I tracked my macronutrients during the prior challenge, I didn’t really have any goals for them. My averages per day were 180g carbs, 125g fat, and 143g protein. I’m going to aim for some small improvements this time around: >=150 grams protein/day, <=150 grams carbohydrate/day, fill in the rest with fat. Possible points: +1 CON I decided to remove my macro goals, because I'm honestly not sure I know what works best for me yet. I'm going to keep reporting them, but I'm only going to score myself on the calorie deficit since that's what counts in the long run. I'm going to try to include notes on energy levels to see if that reveals what the optimal macro balance is for me and my lifestyle. Subquest #2a: I’ve been tracking my daily step counts from my FitBit, and I feel that I have small habits like taking the stairs and parking further away down pat. However, I want to push myself to dedicate more time to go on walks. I’m a huge Tolkien nerd, so I’ll be tracking my walks against Frodo’s journey with the Eowyn Challenge. My goal is to make it to Crickhollow (73 miles – counting dedicated walks only, not other daily activity) by the end of the challenge. Possible points: +1 STA, +1 DEX Subquest #2b: The past two summers, I have ridden my 15 year old mountain bike to work (14.2 miles each way). Even though I take mostly trails to get there, they are all paved, so I feel riding a mountain bike is really slowing me down (I think my average time was around 1hr 30mins). Therefore, I am in the market for buying a road bike soon. I’m such a Tolkien nerd, in fact, that I’m going to have a second save file in my Eowyn Challenge game in which I will be trying to ride to Weathertop by the end of the challenge (241 miles). Possible points: +1 STA, +1 STR Subquest #3: I often have a hard time getting up in the morning, and I seem to be getting to work later and later. I used to get there around 7, but that has slowly crept up over the past 6 months to the point where now I’m getting there around 8:30. I have flexible work hours, so it’s not a big deal, just means I need to stay later – but I don’t like it. I think bettering my sleep habits will help, but I haven’t really been tracking my sleep. My quest is to track my sleep every day, so that I can set some good goals for next challenge. Possible points: +1 WIS Subquest #4: I got an A+ on my goal of playing tennis an average of 2x/week. I’m going to up my goal this challenge to an average of 3x/week. Possible points: +1 STR, +1 DEX Life Quest #1 – I have recently completed all my requirements for my ASA, so now I’m on to the FSA requirements. My goal is to complete one FSA module during this 6WC. Possible points: +2 WIS Life Quest #2 – Last challenge I completed the Pimsleur series for Japanese around week 4. Since then, I’ve studied zero Japanese and I’m not proud of it. My goal for this challenge is consistent practice – 30 minutes a day, every day. Possible points: +2 CHA I will attach an image of my grading spreadsheet later.